Ismene, a memory`s gardener “Ismene“, of the Khroma Company, is

Ismene, a memory’s gardener
“Ismene“, of the Khroma Company, is the creation of an original George Aperghis’ work, on a
homonymous Yannis Ritsos poem. An opera for solo voice, a sort of inner dialogue, a
performance for a body and the natural elements. It foremost invites the audience to see and
to listen, to fathom the weaving of a visual installation and a vocal work in absolute bareness,
in a movement combining opening with an extreme concentration.
Ismene, as a memory’s gardener, cultivates in loneliness the sensory contact with the
elements of her childhood. From her attachment to the tiniest values, contrasting with the
absolutism of her sister Antigone and the grandiloquence or the aloofness expected at the
palace of her father Oedipus, springs a thought, a speech, a vision she builds with slowness
and serenity. That movement, made by a woman at the end of her life, carrying her stock of
experiences, of violence, transmuted in a long meditation both perceptive and lyric, makes
Ismene a universal character, unique and really endearing at the same time.
For her, a space which is the subtle embodiment of the mental universe, innermost recesses
of memory, fantasies, shadows and dazzling intensity.
A square space, a basin of water as the only playground, water wherein Ismene constantly
bathes, recalling the garden fountains, the deserted palace, the place where she prepares
herself to die.
A solo voice being a sound, being a sense, contained in a dilated body, going far beyond her
own skin. A tremendous mirror of the soul.
Credits
A performance by the Khroma Company
Conception
Marianne Pousseur and Enrico Bagnoli
Text
Yannis Ritsos
Original music
Georges Aperghis
Interpreter
Marianne Pousseur
Space, light and direction
Enrico Bagnoli
Dramaturgy, collaboration on the direction
Guy Cassiers
Sounding and sound settings
Diederik De Cock
Producer
Khroma
Coproducer
Ministère de la Communauté Française
de Belgique, Théâtre de la Balsamine
(Bruxelles), Théâtre de la Place (Liège),
Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg.
Creation
October 2008 Festival of Modena, Italy
November 2008
Théâtre de la Balsamine, Brussels, Belgium
March 2009
Théâtre de la Place, Liège, Belgium, in collaboration with Ainsi,
Maastricht, Netherland
Théâtre Jean Vilar of Vitry, France
May 2009
Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg
Theatre des Bernardines Marseille, France
Khroma
Marianne Pousseur et Enrico Bagnoli
12, Impasse des Combattants, B-1081 Brussels Belgium
Phone number : +32 2 410 91 18 fax +39 055 398 09 41
E-mail : [email protected]
Website : http://www.khroma.eu